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Dubai Invests $50m in Hyperloop

Dubai Invests $50m in Hyperloop

DP World has announced that it is investing $50 million in Hyperloop One to help the company complete its full-scale test track in Nevada and bring the concept one step closer to the first commercial system.
The Persian Gulf city of Dubai and its wider port area are being described as the first place to get a full-scale commercial hyperloop system, the way-off system that future-talker Tesla CEO Elon Musk has envisioned would shuttle people across continents in a couple of hours.
It was announced in August that DP World, one of the world’s biggest marine port operators, including of Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, has signed a deal with Hyperloop One, the main company developing a Hyperloop system, and DP World, in order to evaluate and develop a potential Hyperloop cargo offloader at the port, according to Elektric.
Hyperloop One chairman, Iranian-born Shervin Pishevar, confirmed the news in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He also announced that the company hired former Uber CFO Brent Callinicos as chief financial adviser—the company does not have a chief financial officer, but apparently, that’s the most similar role.
A Hyperloop involves using magnets to levitate pods inside an airless tube, creating conditions in which the floating pods could shuttle people and cargo at speeds of up to 750 mph (1,200 kph).
Callinicos is tasked with funding Hyperloop One’s ambitions to create the fifth mode of transport first envisioned by Musk.
With the latest $50 million in debt financing from DP World, Pishevar says that the company has now raised $160 million and it plans another equity round during the first half of 2017 after having completed the test track in Nevada.
The test track will be a proof-of-concept for future versions of the hyperloop. The one of interest to DP World for Dubai’s Port of Jebel Ali would be both underwater and optimized for cargo.
They would create a hyperloop system between the marine port and what would become an inland container port to free up valuable portside real estate and reduce cargo traffic in the region.
The company’s top brass is in Dubai right now coming up with the details of the system and there will be a demonstration next month.